Author: steve

Oct 3, 2016

During October, 1943, the ship was in the midst of a month-long shakedown cruise along the Atlantic coast.   One year later, the Boston, a unit of Task Force 38, was in the midst of Operation King, a complex series of landings and strikes against targets in the Philippines that began September 1 and “ended” when the ship departed Iwo Jima in late February (1945.)   During that October (1944), the men endured the aftermath of the Battle off Formosa (the Crippled Cruisers affair) and the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea.   One year later, the men participated in the Demilitarization of Japan   –   ranging up and down Eastern Honshu, capturing arms, destroying suicide speedboats and suicide subs hidden in caves and coves by the hundreds.

I don’t think I can go the whole month without saying something about the Crippled Cruisers and the Tow of the Houston.   I’m guessing I’ve done so each year this website has been in existence.   I promise a slightly different POV this time, however.   I am just returning home from a two week vacation “back east” – during which I got to meet my 3 month old granddaughter (my first).   There was a little side-trip to Ogunquit, Maine, fulfilling an overdue promise to Roxanne that we would spend some time invading antique shops.

I found an awesome and fascinating book, written by a Japanese reporter (Masanori Ito) in 1956, “The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy” at Arrington’s Historical and Military Books (Ogunquit, ME).   The author’s take on the events leading up to (and during) the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea from the Japanese perspective is really interesting.   I guess I’m letting the cat’s head out of the bag a bit:   I’m probably going to present a look at the “Streamlined Bait / Crippled Cruiser” affair rounded out with a different perspective . . .

Speaking of Arrington’s:   I got to chatting with the owner (George Arrington) about my interest in the Central Pacific War.   We talked some about the Boston.   He sells lots of Cruise Books, along with all manner of books, photos, prints, etc., etc.   He’s been in business since 1988 at the same location.   He has never laid eyes on a CA-69 USS Boston Cruise Book.

Steve

8-8-16

The following are a couple more snippets from the one-month-anchorage (August 1944):

While at anchorage, I had to pull duty on one of the Higgins boats.   I was the bow man, and we had to make a trip to the battleship Indiana to pick up a passenger.   The lagoon was choppy and as we came alongside the starboard gangway, the Coxswain was having trouble coming alongside; we tried 2 more passes, but we could not get close for me to grab the lines.   The Captain happened to be standing on the quarter deck watching us.   He finally   yelled down for us to stay where we were and he would up anchor and bring his ship alongside us.   We were looking for a place to hide, because several hundred people were watching us.   (Frank Studenski)

Being parked in the lagoons was kind of dreary and dull and boring.   Depending on which one you were in, they would send you ashore.   They had a limit – only so many guys at a time from each of the ships.   So what they’d do is give you two warm cans of beer and send you on the island.   But these guys got together – they’d carry a green tablecloth like you’d find in a gambling casino and they set up either a crap game or a card game . . . they had some real games going too.   (George Pitts)

And, later in   the War . . .

We got a chance to swim once in a while when we were anchored in the lagoons.   The Boston was out there for a long time.   Twenty nine months of fighting.   A lot of guys came out and went back   –   they got some relief.   We didn’t.   We were vital to the Navy’s strategy.   After a while we were so homesick and so . . . psycho . . . I guess ‘difficult to get along with’ would be a good way to describe us.   The Admiral put out a warning to the other ships while we were in the lagoons to stay clear of the Boston’s crew when we were on an island.   Really!   It was an order!   And we had to be careful on the lagoons ’cause we were getting into fights all the time with guys from the other ships.     (Pat Fedele)

Lagoon liberty was nothing more than a beer party.   They’d give you two cans of beer and a sandwich.   Sometimes four cans of beer and two sandwiches. There came a time, at one point, where they wouldn’t let us go ashore to the same beach as all the other sailors from the other ships.   Both us and the guys from the New Jersey had to go to our own beach.   We were considered ‘Asiatic’   –   out there too long . . .   trouble.

In one of the lagoons, the Wasp was out there on liberty.   They had beer left over at the end of their liberty and they buried it in the sand.   Some of our guys saw what they were doing.   Our guys went ashore and drank all the beer that they hid.   They knew it was us;   we were the only other ship to come ashore there.   We always had fights after that – the Wasp and the Boston.   We drank their beer – the stuff they were saving for next day.   (John Farkas)

 

 

7-31-16

July 31, 1944:     We are continuing course back to Eniwetok, all our fresh meat and vegetables are almost gone.   We are eating Spam almost two or three times a week, powdered eggs and dehydrated vegetables.   It will be good to eat fresh fruit again.

August 1, 1944:   Today we anchored in Eniwetok Lagoon.   I am looking forward to getting my feet in some sand.     (Frank Studenski)

The ship anchored in Eniwetok for the entire month, weighing anchor on August 30 [at which time TF58 became TF38 – under command of Wm Halsey] [note: last blog I said they arrived in Eniwetok on Aug 6   . . .   my bad].   The ship and crew were not idle for the entire month, spending most days practicing firing and fleet maneuvers.   There was some down time, however:

They let us go swimming in the lagoons.   I dove off the ship once   –   I got stuck in a really strong current;   it dragged me down and away from the ship.   There I was struggling like hell to get back and the guys in the whaleboat saw me struggling so they held out an oar and helped me back towards the ship. You get caught in one of those undertows   –   bad news.   I never swam off the ship again after that.   (John Farkas)

One day while we were at anchorage in Eniwetok I had liberty and went walking along the beach on the lagoon side and I came across a waterlogged paper box.   I turned it over and to my surprise it was a kotex box.   I could not believe it   –   what was this box doing in the lagoon so far away from civilization?   I dried it in the sun and took it back to the ship and showed it to some people who offered to buy it.   (Frank Studenski)

 

 

7-10-16

The Task Force (TF58) left the anchorage at Majuro (Marshall Islands) on 6/6/44, beginning operations to take the Mariana Islands from Japan.   They focused on Guam, Tinian and Saipan, bombarding strategic targets and supporting the landings.   By mid June, the activities of the American ships triggered a defensive plan that pitted the bulk of the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) in a defensive counter-strike against the Task Force that culminated on June 19 in the “First Battle of the Philippine Sea,” aka “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”

After spending 4 days in anchorage at Eniwetok (Marshall Islands), Boston, a unit of Task Group 58.1 departed for the Bonin Islands.   Japan was using Iwo, Chichi and Haha Jima to send planes and reinforcements to Guam, Tinian and Saipan. On July 3, TG58.1 and TG58.2 launched massive airstrikes against the Bonins, damaging and sinking transport ships and planes on the ground. (Two months later, George H Bush, an Avenger pilot on the San Jacinto, was shot down over Chichi Jima.) From July 6 to July 21, Boston’s task group pounded Guam with airstrike after airstrike, supporting the landing that day (and for 20 more days of bombing.)   The men saw plenty of action and plenty of manning their battlestations (General Quarters) until they left the area on Aug 6, arriving at Eniwetok for an extended anchorage.

6-24-16

Vol. 3 of Baked Beans has a section near the back about the Japanese Temple Bell.   I’ve seen it in the Emerald Necklace string of parks in Boston   –   it is in the Back Bay Fens, right across the street from the back of the Museum of Fine Arts.   It is a beautiful bell, whose nearly half a millenium   history includes escaping meltdown by the IJN to be used for artillery casings, a boat ride to San Francisco, a train ride to Boston, being on display for years in the Common / Public Gardens, and a late night roll down back streets in Boston by thieves wanting to sell it for scrap.

I had lots of great stuff about the bell when the Baked Beans books were published, but I was missing a critical piece.   There were newspaper accounts of the bell’s journey by train en route to being presented to the city on behalf of the crew of the USS Boston (by her former skipper, Capt. M.R. Kelley [no relation].   There was collaboration by plankowners Bob Knight and Pat Fedele that the bell had been lowered into the “gooney bird” hangar in the rear of the ship.   But there was no “proof”.

As I mentioned in my last post, Robin Tougas and his brothers had exactly what the doctor ordered.   It was in among dozens of pictures in a trunk of their dad’s Navy stuff (Roland Tougas) and I spotted it when Robin posted a bunch of pictures of his dad on the CA-69 Facebook page.

When I first got the picture from Robin, I reached out to our friend Lola Heiler at the Emerald Conservancy.   She responded, after she caught her breath, by forwarding these pictures of the installation of the restored Temple Bell (the email thread includes Rika Smith McNally (the bell’s restorer) and Paul Craeger (documentary director about the Temple Bell(s) journey to America).   I have the email originator’s [Rika McNally] permission to share the photos.   (Permission from Robin and his brothers as well.)

The restored bell (after it was recovered by Boston Police on it’s way to a scrap yard) was installed in its current location on Nov. 15, 2006.

Here are a few links you might find interesting: emeraldnecklace.org and resonancefilm.com

peace